Alianne's Blog

I knit, sew, spin, weave and tons of other crafty endeavors!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Wow, three months

I seem to be going for a record here of how long I can go without posting. I have actually been knitting and have an actual finished object to show very soon. I've also dug out another overdue project in time for winter. It involves a very nice merino/angora yarn. I'll show that soon, too.

So, what have I been working on instead of knitting and blogging? I've been sewing quite a bit. I have some finished t-shirts that I'll show eventually as well as a pretty denim skirt. I've also been working on some handkerchiefs. In the interest of trying to save a few trees, I've decided to try using handkerchiefs instead of tissues:The left one, I know you can't really see all that well, but I did some drawnwork on it. Basically, I pulled out about five threads from the hanky on each side and it created a nice geometrical pattern. (Just google "drawnwork" for some pretty examples.) It's very faint. The other two hankies, I used a scalloped edging on my sewing machine for, then cut next to the stitching. I'm currently working on some tatted edging for another.

Before anyone comments that hankies are less hygienic than disposable tissues (there seems to be a debate about that issue in several places online), think about this. How many times have you seen someone (or done it yourself) toss a used wet tissue into their pocket, up their sleeve, or in their purse because they weren't right next to a trash can? And how often have you seen someone else's used tissues on the ground because they couldn't be bothered to throw it away?

For hygiene's sake, you're supposed to carry around more than one handkerchief and throw any used ones in the wash at the end of the day. Put used ones in a pocket that's not going to be touching other stuff (like a wallet or coins) and as with tissues, wash your hands after use. They are certainly easier on the nose than paper, and they're not going to add that much to your laundry. They're also super easy to make if, like me, you have lots of cotton and/or linen scraps from previous projects around. And a lot prettier.